Safe securement of a baby after bathing is of paramount concern for mothers at home and for nurses in hospitals. Ordinarily after bathing, the baby is removed from the bathtub and wiped dry by a towel. The towel is usually gripped by the caregiver and is wrapped around the baby while the baby is held against the caregiver's chest. Thus the towel must be adequately secured in order to dry the baby safely and without incident.
Several prior art patents and publications have disclosed various methods of drying infants after bathing by protective towels which are secured to the body. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,154, issued Aug. 11, 1987 describes an apron and infant towel and a method of using the towel to dry an infant after bathing. The apron-towel has identical front and rear panels interconnected by shoulder straps. The infant is placed in the front panel, dried, and the back panel is brought directly over the caregiver's head to dry the infant. The method however is inconvenient and insecure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,367 B2, issued Jan. 14, 2003, describes a bath towel device for picking up and drying an infant after bathing. The bath towel includes a strap for handing the towel around the neck of the caregiver and the towel is wrapped around the infant as shown in FIG. 3 of that patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,829 B1, issued Jul. 22, 2003, describes a protective towel wrap for drying infant, which has three components, a towel, a removable strap and a separate hat. The removal strap is wrapped around the neck of the caregiver.
The methods described in the prior art patents including the aforementioned patents, do not provide a truly secure and convenient means of drying infants.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a towel in combination with a harness strap which can be safely secured to the front upper extremity of the caregiver's body for drying an infant after bathing.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for drying an infant after bathing using the towel and harness with strap device which ensures safety and security of the infant while drying after bathing.
The foregoing and other features of this invention will be hereinafter described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which form parts of this application.